The Stash is Out of Control

I have a yarn store in my house!  I have so much yarn now.  I didn't realize it could get like this.  And... I want to shop for more.  I find myself searching on Ravelry for more, more, more.  It will be next.  I remember some of my lovely things were going to be next.  They were all going to be next at some point.

I really want to blog about dealing with my stash.  I want to make a concerted effort to knit only from stash and see what happens.  A few of my skeins of sock yarn I won during the Knit.Sock.Love KAL on Ravelry, but that only accounts for about 5 skeins or so.  I have a bunch of sweater amounts of yarn, they all had a plan when I bought them.  They should be knit.  I am going to go through my stash and really look at it.  I bet I could knit for 2 or 3 years on the yarn I have. 

Ok, let's go a month at a time.  My goal right now is to make it until December 18, 2013 knitting only from stash.  I will re-set this goal in December.  My ultimate goal is to go an entire year.  That may be a tall order considering how much I LOVE yarn.  Just for today I will try a month.  I do want to really look at the stash and prioritize.  Maybe I could even put some up for sale.  They have that feature on Ravelry.  I should know, I buy from other stash's all the time.  I'm helping them out, right?!?

I have an entire bag of sock yarn that hasn't even been accounted for on my stash page.  My page is definitely not up to date.  That will be part of the first month goal.  I really want to know what I have.  Really, really see it for what it is.  I think I have been downplaying the amount of yarn I actually have.  I have A LOT!

All right, so first month will be to account for it all, prioritize it, possibly sell some, and only knit with what I have.  On your mark, get set, go!!!!

Startitis

Something funny happens around my birthday. Which was a big one by the way. I am officially 40. That being said, I also received a bit of yarn for my big day. I am also in 2, yes I said 2, sock clubs. I also had an "Embrace the Lace" club shipment come. Wow, that's a lot of new yarn. I was just getting in touch with all of the yarn I bought at Stitches. All I've wanted to do is start every project that all of that yarn is intended for.

I have been knitting with the Knit.Sock.Love group on Ravelry. Each month we start another Cookie A. pattern, but we have 2 months to finish. I finished one of my March socks and have the second on the needles. It's now ok to put the April socks on the needles. Crazy!! I had to frog my January Socks that Rock club socks, they were too tight. Before I could do that my March STR shipment showed up. I also joined the Woolgirl sock club for the third year in a row. I did pretty well last year, I only have 2 projects left to knit from last year. It always sounds like a good idea when I join these clubs, I forget that I have a stash of yarn from the first year. I want to knit through it, but new stuff always comes along.

I tend to get startitis and it never involves my club yarn. Ahh well, it is yarn and I love yarn. In and amongst it all I do finish some things. I just finished a beautiful Nicole from http://www.chicknits.com/. I a thoroughly convinced that Bonne Marie Burns is a genius. It is so flattering and I love it. So, things do get finished even if I can't stop starting things.

Working on Manu, Dealing with Dad's Birthday

It's funny how I just can't stop knitting when I'm sad. I pick up the needles and just go. It is so much better than picking up the ice cream though. I'm sad because Dad's birthday is this Sunday. It will be the first one without him. It is extra difficult because I had my younger son on my dad's 49th birthday. So...I have to be able to celebrate for the boy and not be a depressed mess. It is a hard balance.

My son, Nathan Howard, is named after my dad who was Howard Nathan. He is the sweetest most understanding child in the world, so he gets it. I warned him that I will be sad, but I will do the best I can.

To bring this back around to knitting. I am working on Manu by Kate Davies. A beautiful, soft cardigan that is mostly stockinette stitch. It is knit out of sport weight and I'm knitting it on size US4 needles. Therefore there has been a lot lot lot of knitting. I knit the body to 19.5 inches. I am also knitting a size d (which is a 40" chest.) This works out to be a million stitches on the needles. I had a lovely break when the body was about 15" and I knit the sleeves.

Now, I'm not complaining, but...here it goes, that is a lot of stockinette. I love, love, love the look of stockinette. It is simple and beautiful. I will be thrilled with the finished object as well. So, I work through. I guess it's the purling back that is the killer. I thoroughly enjoyed the sleeves because they were knit in the round.

I added 3" to the body. I have a really, really long torso. I added the length before the waist decreases. I also have the longest arms EVER. I knit 17" and they are 3/4 length. That's always good for me because I shove my sleeves up anyway. This time I actually knit the little puffy part. On my Ruby Red I omitted the puffy sleeves. I love all of the details of "Manu" so I am going to knit them all. Puffy sleeves, puffy pockets, pleats. It's amazing. I can't wait to finish.

Since the beginning of September I have been pretty exclusive to knitting Manu. I have finished the body and have attached the sleeves. I am working on the short-row shaping for the yoke. The pattern calls for "Sunday" short-rows. This is where you use snips of contrasting yarn as a place holder for the short-rows. I did this for the first 15 short-rows. I took my sweater to work and was knitting on it and realized I forgot my contrasting yarn, so the second half of the short-rows will be wrap & turn (Cat Bordhi style.) I can not wait to finish the short-rows and close the gaps.

I am looking forward to finishing this sweater. I will keep you posted.

Eating Clean

On February 3, 2010 I lost my dad. It was the hardest thing that I've ever had to go through. I know people go throught things their own way. Well, my way was to stop exercising and eat what ever was closest. The result is my weighing more than I've weighed in about 10 years. Now it's time for a solution.

Part of the deal is that my dad weighed 403 pounds when he died. He was only 62 years old. He had been fighting cancer, but it's really hard on a body to weigh that much. My struggle is not the same extent as his, but I do not want to go down that path. He would fight it, but it was so daunting.

That being said, I'm going back to what I know. I headed back to the gym and I hired myself a trainer. This was about 5 weeks ago now. I have been hitting the weights with her twice a week for an hour each time. She handed me a book about nutrition and told me it's not a diet, but a new way to live. All right, I'll give the book the once over. It's the Eat-Clean Diet by Tosca Reno. She talks about being prepared and having good things to eat ready to go. She also talks about how you need to cut out sugar and white flour.

I feel like I'm getting better at this each week. I started out just cutting out the big offenders. That's processed food, things with white sugar and white flour. I added in some more fruits and vegetables and was on my way.

I really want a place to journal my food and I thought a public blog was as good a place as any. I want to figure this out and be accountable. My trainer really wants this to be a lifestyle. She asked me today if I felt like I was on a diet. It still sort of feels that way. All I know is I feel a million times better. My little black cloud has lifted. I have energy, my body isn't hurting. I'm starting to lose a little weight. I think it will feel less and less like a diet the better I get at it. It just isn't second nature yet.

I have goals and I really want to achieve them. I want my clothes to fit again. That's the motivating factor. But I really want to gain health and wellness. It's easy to keep going when you feel a million times better. I want to blog and journal my food just to stay accountable.

Eating clean is my new way of living. I want to give it a chance to work in my life.

Totally Addicted

I don't know how it happened. Everything, and I mean everything, has taken a back seat to knitting. I know that I have an addictive personality, but this is ridiculous. I have stopped doing everything else. All I do is knit, hang out at ravelry or knitpicks.http://www.ravelry.com/people/Lisaduzhair, http://www.knitpicks.com/Knitting.cfm.
I have pushed aside cleaning, exercising, balancing the checkbook. It's like I totally hide from all of my respbosibilities by knitting one more row. It has gotten ridiculous. I need to find balance again. I just finished cleaning off the kitchen counter and I'm about to do my bookwork from my business. I am behind by three months. Crazy!!! I have gotten totally out of control with my fiber addiction.
I have that obsessive streak to a fault. I want everything perfect. I will do that thing where I work on my project until 1:00am. If I make a mistake I can't function until it's ripped and re-knit correctly. My projects are getting better and better. I am turning out beautiful stuff, but at what expense. Everything else it seems.
I've added a picture of my latest FO. I am very happy with it. I am now working on Ruby Redhttp://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall09/PATTrubyred.php from Knitty.com. I am adding bust darts. I will write about my adventures with that as I go.
I hope that I can find some balance and re-prioritize my life. I love knitting and I love being a knitter, but I need balance again. Knitting shouldn't cause guilt.

The Bust Line

The last couple of projects have all been about fitting me properly. I have a good sized chest, a small waist and some substantial hips. If I connect the bust to the hips with no shaping I might as well be wearing a garbage bag. So, my mission has been to figure out how to fit and to flatter.

I just finished Wicked by Zephyrstyle. I cast-on for a medium and did vertical bust darts and some waist shaping and wittled it down to an xs at the waist. It worked out very well. I love how it fits.

I am working on Green Gables also by Zephyrstyle right now. My Wicked is a little big at the top, so I cast-on for a small this time and added short-row shaping at the bust. ITR I couldn't figure out how to pick up the wrapped stitches on the second side. The first side was fine, it was like a short row heel of a sock, but after coming around the back and picking them up it was funky. I frogged back and tried again. It was better, but still funky. I took a crochet hook and at each wrap undid that row of stitches and made it flat and pulled the stitches back onto the needle. I know there is a better way. I've been reading blogs and posts on ravelry about Japanese short rows. That is the way to go ITR it looks like.

I'll post pictures of Green Gables soon.

Knitting Away

I haven't posted in such a long time. I have been knitting away. I am totally addicted to knitting socks. I am having so much fun and learning so much. They are so much fun to knit. I also knitted tams for all of the girls at work as well as my step mother. Sometimes knitting a handful of small projects can be quite satisfying. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

I made fair isle tams for the girls at work. They are so fun to knit. I used Noro silk garden with natural color Ella Rae. It gives them fabulous color and looks very complicated, when in reality it was pretty simple to do. I just had to throw with the color hand and pick with the natural undyed hand. Fun, Fun Fun!!

My mother-in-law bought me some fabulous hand-painted yarn for Christmas. It's a sweaters worth too. I am working on the "Hot Lava" cardigan by Jennifer Paulousky. It is a very clever design. All of my sock knitting has really helped work this sweater up. It is done magic loop, which is the only way I know how to work in a small diameter. I do all of my socks with magic loop. Anyway, it is a shrug where you pick up the stitches around the entire thing and add a bolero type front and back too it. It also has directions to accomodate a busty front. It is almost finished and I cast it on only a week ago. I will also have enough yarn left over to make a scarf and tam. I won't wear it altogether however because it would be total turquoise over load. Pictures are posted on Ravelry. I will post pictures when I finish on my next post.

I have joined the "Woolgirl Sock Club" this year, so I plan on doing more posting. I have also started my skating again, so I want to gab about that too. I want to talk about all of my endeavors in knitting this year along with the rest of my crazy world.